WENN
Comedian, actor, habitual marathon runner, and possibly the future Mayor of London, Eddie Izzard is the quintessential Renaissance man. With his newest stand-up special Force Majeure out on DVD and a U.S. tour coming up in the spring, Izzard took to Reddit to answer questions from his international army of fans. Here are a few of our favorite bits:
On being an “executive transvestite”:
“I don’t call it crossdressing anymore. I believe it is my right, under the United Nations Charter, to wear whatever I want, whenever I want to. But I also want to act in better and better roles, in dramas, in film and television. So I can be in boy mode or girl mode or somewhere in-between. And I’m somewhat tactical about whether I am in boy mode or girl mode. But I am still a card-carrying British European transvestite.”
On his political future:
“I haven’t decided yet what policies I will have regarding London. It is still six years away. But what I would say is that I will bring all my energy and drive and inventiveness to the job of being Mayor of London, if I was fortunate enough to be elected.”
On piloting the TARDIS:
“No, I have never been asked to play Doctor Who, but thank you for considering me. I think it would be an intriguing idea.”
On why he was the perfect choice to play a serial killer in Hannibal
:
“I have always had a theory that playing a psychotic character is an interesting fit for someone who was known to do comedy. I think that doing comedy is seen as somewhat psychotic as well.”
On what would have happened if The Riches hadn’t been killed by the writers’ strike:
“I saw Wayne Malloy maybe tending to become a false preacher. I thought that would be an intriguing play for him to go, as there are a number of people who pretend to be with their gods but seem to just be in it for the money. So I thought that would be an intriguing place to investigate in our show. But overall, I felt the family would go through a lot of hell and then eventually I saw Wayne going to prison, and Dahlia going off with the kids – in an inverse way, what happened at the beginning of the series.”
On stand-up success:
“A friend once told me, ‘You have to do a hundred gigs.’ It is good advice. Until you’ve done a hundred gigs, you won’t have developed your voice.”
On the ultimate question: Cake or death?
“It has to be cake, I suppose.”
